10 LOONS 



Nest. — Usually the hollowed-out top of an old muskrat house in a lake. 

 Eggs : 2, dark olive gray, spotted with black and more or less stained 

 with brown. 



In the north spring comes with a bound. A few warm days and 

 a rain — the ice breaks — and then, with a wild shrill cry overhead 

 come the loons, with strong steady flight — and spring is here. 

 On their home waters the loons are found usually in pairs, swim- 

 ming in the clear rivers and lakes, not paddling around shore or in 

 the wild rice or tules with the ducks and grebes, but out in a big 

 sweep of open water. If alarmed they dive, and few if any birds 

 can equal them in long rapid journeys under water. If the lake is 

 shallow you can follow their wake, but you must be a good rower 

 with a good boat to keep up with one. If there is no wind a loon 

 will often race for miles, showing only his head above water at long 

 intervals rather than undertake the laborious water kicking per- 

 formance necessary in order to get fairly on the wing. Against a 

 stiff breeze the birds rise with less effort. On land they are practi- 

 cally helpless, as they can neither walk nor take wing, and must 

 slide and flap along to the nearest water. The water is their home 

 from the time they hatch and tumble into it as furry balls of dusky 

 down till their last cry rings over the surface. 



Only on the lonely lake in the heart of the woods do you get the 

 startling thrill of the loon's wild cry, — one clear, piercing note or a 

 long, quavering, demoniacal laugh that to the timid suggests a herd 

 of screatning panthers. It is one of the stirring, inspiring sounds 

 of nature, like the scream of an eagle or the bugling of a flock of 

 swans, and after hearing it you no longer wonder that the loon has 

 figured in poetry and legend. Vernon Bailey. 



9. Gavia arctica (Linn.). Black-throated Loon. 



Adults in summer. — Back of head and neck smoky or plumbeous gray; 

 throat and fore neck purplish black, throat crossed by transverse bars of 

 white streaks, a series of longitudinal white streaks separating the gray 

 and black on sides of neck ; back black, barred and spotted with white ; 

 breast pure white. Winter and immature plumages: white markings of 

 back wanting, and throat white. Length: 26-29, wing 12.55, bill 2.60. 



Distribution. — Northern part of northern hemisphere, breeding in arctic 

 America and migrating south to extreme northern states, east of the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



Eggs. — Laid on the ground on a small islet in a pond ; dark olive, 

 blotched with black. 



10. Gavia paeifiea (Lawr.). Pacific Loon. 



Breeding plumage. — Back of head and neck smoky gray or whitish ; 

 throat black, glossed witli greenish or purplish and crossed by transverse 

 bar of white streaks ; sides of neck with series of longitudinal white 

 streaks ; back black, with four series of white bars ; lower parts white. 



